Chapter 59: Defeated and Fleeing from the Yin Manor

  Under the escort of his personal guards, Li Zhong and Taishi Ci arrived at the foot of Yinju City. Seeing that the city walls were already lined with defenders, they knew that Yang Chou must be on the wall. So they whispered a few words to each other in low voices, and Taishi Ci nodded, then shouted loudly: "Li Ziwu, the Magistrate of Guangwu, is here! You scoundrel Yang Chou, come out and answer!"

  Taishi Ci's martial arts were powerful, his breath was majestic, and his voice rumbled like thunder. The soldiers on the city wall heard it clearly, and Yang Chou also heard Taishi Ci's shout.

  To avoid losing momentum, Yang Chou couldn't pretend not to hear and also shouted: "Yang Chou is here, Li Ziyue, how dare you openly attack the territory under the imperial court's jurisdiction, threaten the superior officials, do you want to rebel?"

  "Rebel?" Taishi Ci burst out laughing, and shouted according to Li's instructions: "Yang Chou, you dare to spout blood from your mouth! I, Li Ziyue, am a loyal minister of the great Han. Not like you, as the head of a prefecture, you sit idly by while the Black Mountain bandit Zhang Yan leads his troops into our territory, slaughtering innocent civilians along the way, raping women... plundering and burning everything in sight. I'd like to ask, who is it that wants to rebel?"

  Tai Shi's words had barely fallen when the defenders on the city wall of Yinguang City suddenly changed color. They really didn't know about Zhang Yan's invasion, and at first they thought Li Chong was attacking their home for no reason, which made them indignant. But now that they saw it, it seemed to be a justified cause, judging from Yang Chou's behavior, it seemed like there was indeed such a thing.

  Giving one's life for oneself and giving one's life for others are two completely different concepts. Unconsciously, Yang Chou felt that the morale of his soldiers had suddenly dropped, knowing he couldn't let Li Zhong speak nonsense anymore, immediately shouted: "Release arrows..."

  Instantly, a flurry of arrows shot out from the city wall. Taishi Ci let out a loud laugh and swung his steel spear to deflect the arrows.

  The soldiers under Li Chong also raised their shields and protected Li Chong as he retreated.

  Always retreating to the range of bows and arrows, Li Chong finally burst out cursing: "Yang, you ugly little boy, despicable and shameless, shooting hidden arrows, if you have the guts, come out and fight with grandpa for 300 rounds."

  Yang Chou, although he thought his martial arts were extraordinary, wouldn't be foolish enough to come out and duel Li Zhong one-on-one. According to Li Zhong's despicable personality, as long as he himself came out of the city, whoever would duel him one-on-one would definitely be Ta Shi Ci. In the battle at Tiger Trap Pass, Ta Shi Ci had gained a lot of fame and was already a famous general in the world. Yang Chou didn't think he was a match for Ta Shi Ci.

  Seeing Yang Ugly not coming out to fight, Li Chong immediately adopted the most ancient method to force Yang Ugly out, that is, to curse and insult him.

  Select several soldiers with loud voices, let them hold iron megaphones, set up shields in front to prevent hidden arrows, stand under the city wall of Yinguang and scold loudly.

  Tai Shi Zi led three hundred elite cavalry in a strict formation, waiting for Yang Chou to come out and fight.

  Li Chong listened for half a day, feeling uninterested and bored. The insults from these soldiers were too clumsy, repeating the same few sentences over and over: Yang was as timid as a mouse, as stupid as a pig, and so on.

  Li Chong called over a few soldiers and whispered to them for half a day, only to see these soldiers look strange, as if they had heard the most bizarre thing in the world.

  The shift is over, a soldier returned to the front of the formation, cleared his throat and shouted loudly: "Yang Chou, one day your mother praised me in person, saying that I can make her more comfortable on the bed, while your dead father, tsk! He's like a small earthworm, no energy at all! Hahaha... hahaha..."

  Another soldier shouted: "That's right, your grandma said so too."

  Yang Chou didn't understand what was going on at first, but when he finally figured it out, he suddenly felt a surge of hot blood rushing to his head, his face turned bright red with anger, and smoke seemed to be coming out of his seven orifices.

  At this time, both sides' soldiers also understood and burst into thunderous laughter.

  At that moment, another soldier shouted: "One day your grandfather died, the one who cried the most was your mother, do you know why?"

  "Li Chong... I... damn it... you... grandma!" Yang Chou could no longer hold back, because he found that even his own soldiers were listening with relish, covering their mouths to stifle their giggles. If he continued to endure, he might become the laughing stock of the great Han dynasty.

  In a fit of rage, Yang Ugly no longer cared about anything else, gathered 500 soldiers and wanted to chop the several scolding soldiers into pieces.

  Li Chong didn't expect Yang Chou to be so unscrupulous, he still had many more jokes to show off, how could Yang Chou not hold back? Alas... the patience of ancient people is really poor!

  Li Chong is really underestimating the destructive power of modern scolding words. You know, in ancient times, there weren't many ninjas like Sima Yi who could endure being ridiculed by soldiers from both sides. Which general leading troops wasn't hot-blooded? How could they tolerate it?

  "Rumble..." With a loud noise, the city gate of Yinguang County swung open, and Yang Chou led 500 cavalrymen in a fierce charge towards the abusive soldiers.

  The soldiers of Ma Zhen's army were not fools either. As soon as they saw the city gate open, they turned around and ran away. They were only responsible for scolding people, while fighting was General Ta Shi's responsibility.

  Tai Shi Zi listened to Li Chong's scolding and felt a chill in his heart, secretly feeling sorry for Yang Chou. Fortunately, Yang Chou was still in his prime; if he were as old as Cheng Yu, there would have been a good chance that he would have died from rage on the spot.

  So Tai Shi Zi believed and firmly believed that as long as Yang Jiao was a capable general, he would definitely come out of the city to fight.

  Seeing Yang's ugly and defeated rush out, Taishi Ci, who had been prepared early, immediately led his cavalry to meet him, and the two sides unfolded a battle in front of the moat.

  Yang's cavalry was not numerous, with only over a hundred men, and they were intercepted by Taishi Ci, who led his troops to block them. They clashed together in a fierce battle.

  The remaining three hundred infantry and two hundred cavalry fought together. Due to the vastness of the battlefield, Taishi Ci's cavalry could speed up and gallop back and forth. In this situation, the infantry was absolutely unable to withstand the impact of the cavalry. After a few rounds, these elite cavalrymen killed nearly half of Yang Yu's infantry, while their own losses were minimal.

  The defenders on the walls of Yingcheng saw that their commander was in a precarious situation and were about to descend from the city to provide support.

  Li Chong and others saw that the defenders on the city wall had a tendency to go down and support, so they naturally couldn't ignore it, and also adjusted their troops, preparing to support Taishi Ci.

  Just as the two sides were about to engage in a fierce battle, Li Zhongji stomped his foot and pounded his chest, cursing loudly: "Yang Chou, what are you doing? You're not following the script!"

  Cheng Yu and others watched Li Da scold Yang Ugly, they all felt embarrassed for Yang Ugly in their hearts, thinking that if anyone was to blame, it could only be blamed on Master's excessively vicious mouth, whoever is a person, being insulted by you like this, will fight with you to the death.

  Just as the two sides were about to engage in a fierce battle, Yang Jiao's deputy made several moves that satisfied both parties: sounding the golden drum and withdrawing troops.

  Yang Ugly's deputy general did not want to engage in a decisive battle with Li Chong, and Li Chong was scolding someone else, so the deputy general was not confused, his mind was clear, he knew that in a big battle under the city, his side would not have any advantage, and he was unwilling to consume soldiers in a field battle, maintaining military strength and defending the city was the right thing to do.

  "The...the...the..." crisp sound of the golden bell echoed over the city walls.

  Upon hearing the sound of the golden drum, Yang Chou suddenly came to and found that most of his soldiers had been killed by Taishi Ci. He immediately led the defeated troops in a retreat towards the city gate.

  Tai Shi Zi was chased for a while and was shot back by a burst of arrows from the city head.

  As Li Chong had no intention of attacking the Yin Guan, Taishi Ci rode around the city once, led back the ownerless warhorses and returned to his own camp.

  Yang Chou returned to the city gate, first scolding loudly for a while, then said angrily: "Li Zhong, I must make you look good, quickly send messages to Yuanping and Mayi counties, let them dispatch troops to support."

  As soon as Yang's ugly words fell, someone immediately rushed forward on horseback to deliver the message.

  Actually, Yang Ugly didn't need to be in a hurry. Li Chong had no intention of attacking the city at all. In the following days, Li Chong only led his men to show off their military prowess outside the city every day, casually scolding them for a few sentences before returning to the camp to drill the soldiers, treating this siege as a regular exercise.

  Li Chong did not attack the city, and Yang Jiao was also happy with his leisurely life, nor did he go out of the city to fight a decisive battle with Li Chong.

  Three days passed in this way, and Li Chong's scouts came to report: Yuanping and Maiyi counties each sent 1,000 soldiers to support Yang Chou. The troops from Yuanping County had assembled and left the county seat, while those from Maiyi were advancing rapidly, only a hundred miles away from the Great Wall. Upon receiving this news, Li Chong hastily summoned everyone to discuss the matter.

  When Taishi Ci and others gathered in the big tent, Li Chong told them about the situation.

  Cheng Yu said first: "My lord, now the enemy is numerous and we are few, it's better to withdraw the troops."

  "Not bad, the troops of Yuanping County may adopt the strategy of surrounding Weizhou to rescue Zhaozhou, attacking Guangwu, or retreating as a good option." Taishi Ci also echoed.

  Seeing Cheng Yu and Taishi Ci both agree to withdraw, Li Chong immediately said: "Since that's the case, I'll lead the infantry first, and Taishi Ci will bring up the rear with the cavalry."

  "Understood, I will follow orders." Taishi Ci immediately bowed his fist and accepted the order.

  As mentioned earlier, Li Chong's return was a swift and lightly-equipped one, so the speed of their withdrawal was extremely fast. By noon the next day, they had already rushed back to the borders of Guangwu. At this time, scouts reported that the troops from Yuanping County had indeed adopted the tactic of "besieging Wei to rescue Zhao" and were rushing straight towards Guangwu.

  When Li Chong's army withdrew back to the county town, Taishi Ci's cavalry also arrived in succession.

  After inquiring about the situation, he learned that Yang Yu's army was not closely following Taishi Ci's cavalry. Li Chong immediately decided to adopt a strategy of separate attacks and first eliminate the original Ping County army.

  Li Chong immediately led his men forward to meet the enemy, allowing his cavalry troops to rest for half a day.

  The cavalry under Li Chong's command had been unbeaten in recent battles, and their confidence was soaring. When they heard that the troops from Yuanping County dared to attack their homeland, they were instantly enraged, shouting that they would annihilate the enemy without leaving a single piece of armor intact.

  Seeing that even the vanguard was no longer needed, Li Zhongxin's anger erupted, and he clenched his fists, eager to take on Yuan Ping's army.

  The army had only marched for twenty miles when the scouts came to report again, and Yuanping's troops had retreated. Li Chong was suddenly stunned, he had prepared well, but his opponent had suddenly withdrawn, just like a fist full of strength hitting an empty space, making Li Chong so angry that he almost spat blood.

  If we can't greatly weaken Pingyang County's strength in the field battle, it will take several times more effort to attack the city in the future.

  Wanting to pursue, Li Chong was again afraid of an ambush, and hesitated in his mind. After a long time of contemplation, Li Chong said in a deep voice: "Withdraw the army."

  After some thought, Li Chong was still unwilling to take the risk. He was not like Cao Cao or Yuan Shao, who had a shallow foundation and would have no chance of reviving if they suffered a great defeat.

  Back in the county town, Li Chong saw that everyone was somewhat exhausted, so he told everyone to go back and rest.